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Hassells
History of the Church of God

C.B.
Hassell

CHAPTER VI

From the Restoration of the
Jews to

the Coming of Christ

Sylvester Hassell

The affairs of the Jews
continued about the same under the Grecian as under the Medo-Persian reign.
While Jaddua was high priest in Jerusalem Alexander visited the Holy Land III
person, was well received, and promised to befriend the inhabitants. It is said
that he was met, before his entrance, into Jerusalem, by the priestly tribe in
their white robes, accompanied by a vast number of citizens dressed in white,
and the high priest (chief ruler) at their head, accompanied with a band of
priestly musicians, clashing their cymbals. The sight was very imposing, and
obtained favor in the sight of the world's conqueror. His name was well received
in Palestine during his short reign of about thirteen years, and both Jews and
Samaritans embraced every opportunity to entreat his favor on themselves and
urge his punishment on their opponents. For about a century and a half
subsequent to the death of Alexander, Palestine was considered a province of the
Graeco-Egyptian kingdom. It was the principal stage across which "the, kings of
the south," the Alexandrian Ptolemies, and the "kings of the north," the
Seleucidae from Antioch, passed to and fro with their court intrigues and
incessant armies, their Indian elephants, their Grecian cavalry, and their
Oriental pomp. Immediately succeeding the "death of Alexander, Judea came into
the possession of Laomedon, one of his generals. On his defeat, Ptolemy, the
king of Egypt, attempted to seize the whole of Syria. He advanced against
Jerusalem, assaulted it on the Sabbath, and met with no resistance, the
superstitious Jews scrupling to violate the holy day, even in self-defense. The
conqueror carried away 100,000 captives, whom he settled chiefly in Alexandria
and Cyrene. In a short time,following a more humane policy, he endeavored to
attach the Jewish people to his cause, enrolled an army of 30,000 men, and
entrusted the chief garrisons of the country to their care. Syria and Judea did
not escape the dreadful anarchy which ensued during the destructive warfare
waged by the generals and successors of Alexander. Twice these provinces fell
into the hands of Antigonus, and twice were regained by Ptolemy, to whose share
they were finally adjudged after the decisive defeat of Antigonus at lpsus. The
maritime towns, Tyre, Joppa and Gaza, were the chief points of contention:
Jerusalem itself seems to have escaped the horrors of war. During this dangerous
period Onias, the high priest, administered the public, affairs for twenty-one
years. He was succeeded, the year after the battle of lpsus, by Simon the Just,
a pontiff on whom Jewish tradition dwells with peculiar attachment. His death
was the commencement of peril and disaster, announced, say the Rabbies, by the
most alarming prodigies. The sacrifices, which were always favorably accepted
during his life, at his death became uncertain or unfavorable. The scape goat,
which used to be thrown from a rook, and to be dashed immediately to pieces,
escaped (a fearful omen) into the desert. The great west light of the golden
chandelier no longer burnt with a steady flame; sometimes it was extinguished.
The sacrificial fire languished; the sacrificial bread failed, so as not to
suffice, as formerly, for the whole priesthood.''-Milman.

"Palestine was subject to the
first five Ptolemies of Egypt about a century, B.C. 301-198. Simon the Just was
succeeded by his brother Eleazar, his son, Onias being under age (B.C. 292-251).
His long rule seems to have been profoundly tranquil, under the mild governments
of Ptolemy I., Soter (the son of Lagus), and Ptolemy II., Philadelphus, who
succeeded his father in B. C. 285 and reigned till B.C. 247."-W. Smith.

About this time the
translation of the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) was undertaken, under
the auspices of Ptolemy Philadelphus, at Alexandria. Whether it was to gratify
the king by enriching his library, and thereby adding to his fame and the
gratification of learned men in that age of the world; or whether it was brought
about by the combined efforts of the Jews in Alexandria and throughout the
kingdom of Ptolemy, history does not authentically inform us. There are many
unreasonable and fabulous statements made in regard to the matter. We may
reasonably suppose, however, that the vast number of Jews scattered among the
nations even at that period, who spoke the Greek language, so prevalent in the
world, wanted a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek tongue. At
any rate, it is said that seventy men, noted for learning, were selected to
perform this work, and did so, since which time it has been called the
translation of the lxx., or Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, and remains the
Old Testament of the Greek "church" to this very day. There was a revival of
learning about this period, and Alexandria was noted for her learned men. In
that fostering atmosphere there sprang up those influences which she exercised,
over the Jewish church, and the Jewish over the Christian church and professed
Christian church for two thousand years.

Learned men have pronounced
this translation very inaccurate, and yet perhaps no translation was ever more
popular with the people. It was in use among the Jews at the time of our
Savior's appearance on earth, and was quoted by Him and His Apostles,
evangelists, and early followers, and no scholastic, criticism has been able to
gain foothold against such a Divine sanction as that. The New Testament writers
correct the Septuagint by the Hebrew when needful.

Most of the books called
Apocryphal were written between the return from the Babylonish captivity and the
Christian era, and form a sort of appendix to the Jewish Scriptures, and aid to
some extent in filling that blank which would otherwise exist for 400 years of
the Mosaic dispensation.

Antiochits IV., Epiphanes,*
king of Syria, B.C. 175, became one of the most cruel oppressors the Jews had
ever met with. He wished to Grecianize everything- names, places, fashions,
religion and all. He acted like a madman. He attempted to exterminate the
religion of the Jews, and substitute that of the Greeks. At one time he
approached "Jerusalem, took it without much resistance, put to death in three
days' time 40,000 of the inhabitants, and seized as many more to be sold as
slaves. He entered every part of the temple, pillaged the treasury, seized all
the sacred utensils, the golden candlestick, the table of show-bread, the altar
of incense, and thus collected a booty to the amount of 1,800 talents (about
three million dollars). He then commanded a great sow to be sacrificed on the
altar of burnt offerings, part of the flesh to be boiled, and the liquor from
the unclean animal to be sprinkled over every part of the temple; and thus
desecrated with the most odious defilement the sacred place, which the Jews had
considered for centuries the one holy spot in all the universe. Menelaus
retained the dignity of High Priest; but two foreign officers, Philip, a
Phrygian, and Andronicus, were made Governors of Jerusalem and Samaria." He
designed the entire destruction of the Jewish race, when, in two years after
this unhallowed course, he authorized one Apollonius to carry into execution his
design with cruel dispatch. "Apollonius waited until the Sabbath, when the whole
people were occupied in their religious duties. He then let loose his soldiers
against the unresisting multitude, slew all the men, till the streets ran with
blood, and seized all the women as captives. He proceeded to pillage and then to
dismantle the city, which he set on fire in many places; he threw down the
walls, and built a strong fortress on the highest part of Mount Zion, which
commanded the temple and all the rest of the city. From this garrison he
harassed all the people of the country, who stole in with fond attachment to
visit the ruins, or offer a hasty and interrupted worship in the place of the
sanctuary; for all the public services had ceased, and no voice of adoration was
heard in the holy city, unless of the profane heathen calling on their idols.
The persecution did not end here. Antiochus issued an edict for uniformity of
worship throughout his dominions, and despatched officers into all parts to
enforce rigid compliance with the decree. This office in the district of Judea
and Samaria was assigned to Athenaeus, an aged man, who was well versed in the
ceremonies and usages of the Grecian religion. The Samaritans, according to the
Jewish account, by whom they are represented as always asserting their Jewish
lineage when it seemed to their advantage, and their Median descent when they
hoped thereby to escape any immediate danger, yielded at once; and the temple on
Gerizim was formally consecrated to Jupiter Xenius. Athenaeus, having been so
far successful, proceeded to Jerusalem, where with the assistance of the
garrison he prohibited and suppressed every observance of the Jewish religion,
forced the people to profane the Sabbath, to eat swine's flesh and other unclean
food, and expressly forbade the national rite of circumcision. The temple was
dedicated to Jupiter Olympius; the statue of that deity erected on part of the
altar of burnt offerings, and sacrifice duly performed. Two women, who had
circumcised their children, were led round the city with the babes hanging at
their breasts, and then cast headlong from the wall; and many more of those
barbarities committed, which, as it were, escape the reprobation of posterity
from their excessive atrocity. Cruelties too horrible to be related, sometimes,
for that very reason, do not meet with the detestation they deserve. Among other
martyrdoms, Jewish tradition dwells with honest pride upon that of Eleazar, an
aged scribe, ninety years old, who determined to leave a notable example to such
as be young to die willingly and courageously for the honorable and holy laws;
and that of the seven brethren who, encouraged by their mother, rejected the
most splendid offers, and confronted the most excruciating torments rather than
infringe the law. From Jerusalem the persecution spread throughout the country:
in every city the same barbarities were executed, the same profanations
introduced; and, as a last insult, the feast of the Bacchanalia, the license of
which, as these feasts were celebrated in the later ages of Greece shocked the
severe virtue of the older Romans, was substituted for the national festival of
tabernacles. The reluctant Jews were forced to join in these riotous orgies, and
carry the ivy, the insignia of the god. So near was the Jewish nation, and the
worship of Jehovah, to total extermination"-Milman.

*Epiphanes means
illlustrious; he was, by way of parody, surnamed by others Epimanes, the Insane.

Many have been the scenes
described in ancient and modern history, where the people of the Most High God
have suffered persecution purely for conscience’ sake, but we believe very few
have surpassed in enormity that which they suffered under Antiochus Epiphanes
about 167 years before the Christian era. There was no insubordination, no
revolt, no political pretext, for this cruelty toward his own peaceable
subjects, but simply a determination to destroy the visible signs of God's
worshipers or destroy the people themselves! Antiochus Epiphanes died at Tabae,
in Persia, B.C. 164, of a most horrible and loathsome, disease of the bowels, it
is said, eaten alive with worms, emitting an intolerable odor, acknowledging
that his illness was sent upon him by the God of Israel for his cruelty and
sacrilege, and becoming raving mad before he breathed his last.

It seems to be a matter
worthy of note that while the successors of Alexander who ruled in Egypt were
generally mild in their dealings with the Jews in Palestine; those who ruled in
Antioch were almost invariably cruel and oppressive toward them.

Before the final extinction
of the Jews and their worship God raised up their deliverers in their very
midst, who by natural means resisted this "abomination of desolation," took up
arms against the mighty power of the Syrian monarch, and finally gained their
independence so far as to be permitted to worship the God of their fathers as in
days of old. Jehovah did not in a miraculous way destroy their enemies and give
them relief, but He did it by raising up a certain individual and his five sons,
who, by holy zeal, bravery, stratagem, and true wisdom, discomfited large
armies, crippled the resources of their great adversary, and secured peace.

In the town of Modin, in
Palestine, fifteen miles West of Jerusalem, there lived a man by the name of
Mattathias, who had five sons by the names of Johanan, Simon, Judas, Eleazar and
Jonathan. When Apelles, the officer of king Antiochus, came to Modin to enforce
idolatry on the citizens, he manifested great regard for Mattathias, and made
him splendid offers to propitiate his favor, and secure his influence in
carrying the edict of Antiochus into execution. Mattathias refused his offers,
and declared his determination to live and die in the faith of his fathers.

While viewing, with holy
indignation, the sacrifices offered to the heathen deity, he espied an, apostate
Jew officiating at the altar; this was more than he could bear to behold. Like
Phineas of old, in a transport of zeal for the cause of God, he struck the
offender dead upon the altar, and then turned upon Apelles, the king's
commissioner, and slew him. Here was a conflict raised single-handed with the
mighty potentate at Antioch, and Mattathias prepared himself for the struggle.
He called together his five sons and as many as had sufficient zeal to do so to
follow him, and be retired at once to the mountains. His forces rapidly
increased, but a thousand of them were surprised and destroyed by the Syrian
troops on a Sabbath day- because the Jews would not fight on that day.
Mattathias, therefore, resolved henceforward not to regard the Sabbath day in
war, but to defend himself on that day as well as on any other. "The insurgents
conducted their revolt with equal enterprise and discretion. For a time they lay
hid in the mountain fastnesses; and, as opportunity occurred, poured down upon
the towns, destroyed the heathen altars, enforced circumcision, punished all
apostates who fell into their hands, recovered many copies of the law, which
their enemies had wantonly defaced, and re-established the synagogues for public
worship, the temple being defiled and in possession of the enemy. Their ranks
were swelled with the zealots for the law, who were then called the Chassidim.
For, immediately after the return from Babylonia, two sects had divided the
people; the Zadikim, the righteous, who observed the written law of Moses, and
the more austere and abstemious Chassidim, or the holy, who added to the law the
traditions and observances of the fathers, and professed a holiness beyond the
letter of the covenant. From the former sprung the Caraites and Sadducees of
later times; from the latter, the Pharisees. But the age of Mattathias was ill
suited to this laborious and enterprising warfare; having bequeathed the command
to Judas, the most valiant of his sons, he sank under the weight of years and
toil. So great already was the terror of his name that he was buried, without
disturbance on the part of the enemy, in his native city of Modin."-Milman.

The youthful general added
vigor and enterprise to the cause, without lessening the prudence and skill
which had hitherto attended it.

Judas unfurled the banner of
the "Maccabees," the reason of which name is involved in obscurity, but under
which he and his brothers fought, and their names became famous on earth. One
succeeded another until the whole of them disappeared, without reproach, from
the scenes of earth. They governed Judea for about sixty years, and then their
descendants for seventy years longer (until 37 B.C.).

The rulers in Judea were much
troubled, about 100 years B.C., with dissensions, of a religious character, in
their midst. The controversy between Pharisees and Sadducees increased, and the
more rapidly as peace prevailed between Judea and other nations. Their views
were quite opposite. "The Pharisees were moderate predestinarians; the Sadducees
asserted free will. The Pharisees believed in the immortality of the soul and
the existence of angels, though their creed on both these subjects was strongly
tinged with Orientalism. The Sadducees denied both. The Pharisees received not
merely the prophets, but the traditional law, likewise, as of equal authority
with the books of Moses. The Sadducees, if they did not reject, considered the
prophets greatly inferior to the law. The Sadducees are said to have derived
their doctrine from Sadoc, the successor of Antigonus Socho in the presidency of
the great Sanhedrim. Antigonus taught the lofty doctrine of pure and
disinterested love and obedience to God, without regard to punishment or reward.
Sadoc is said to have denied the latter, without maintaining the higher doctrine
on which it was founded. Still, the Sadducees are far from what they are
sometimes represented, the teachers of a loose and indulgent E Epicureanism;
they inculcated the belief in Divine Providence, and the just and certain
administration of temporal rewards and punishments.

"The Pharisees had the
multitude, ever led away by extravagant religious pretensions, entirely at their
disposal: Sadduceeism spread chiefly among the higher orders. It would be unjust
to the Sadducees to confound them with that unpatriotic and Hellenized party,
which, during the whole of the noble struggles of the Maccabees, sided with the
Syrian oppressors, for these are denounced as avowed apostates from Judaism; yet
probably, after the establishment of the independent government, the latter
might make common cause and become gradually mingled up with the Sadduceean
party, as exposed alike to the severities of Pharisaic administration. During
the rest of the Jewish history we shall find these parties as violently opposed
to each other, and sometimes causing as fierce and dangerous dissensions as
those which rent the commonwealths of Greece and Rome or the republican states
of modern Europe. It was at the close of his reign that Hyrcanus broke with the
Pharisaic party, and openly joined the opposite faction; a measure of which the
disastrous consequences were not entirely felt till the reign of his son,
Alexander."-Milman. Hyreanus reigned twenty-nine years, and was an able,
faithful and successful ruler.

Judas, whose Greek name was
Aristobulus (son of Hyrcanus), succeeded his father in the year 106 B.C., gained
the character of the "Lover of the Greeks," and won the admiration of Gentile
writers by his moderation towards them, and by the energy with which as his
father had incorporated the Edomites on the south, so he conquered and absorbed
the Ituraean borderers on the north. He lived but a year in office, and that was
a year of crime and misery. He imprisoned his mother, and starved her to death;
and imprisoned three of his brothers, and had one of them slain. But that for
which he was chiefly remembered was that he was the first of his family to
assume the regal title and diadem, B.C. 106. Once more there was a "king in
Israel," but bearing the name unknown before and to acquire before long a solemn
significance, "King of the Jews." "It was still, however, as high priest that he
reigned, and it was not till his brother, Jonathan, mounted the throne, under
the name of Alexander, that the coins alternately bear the names of Jonathan,
the high priest (or, more rarely, the king) in Hebrew, and Alexander, the king,
in Greek. In common parlance he was known by the two names combined, Alexander
Jannaeus."

Alexander, after an unquiet
and eventful reign of twenty-seven years, departed this life, and his widow,
Alexandra, succeeded him, and became first "Queen of the Jews," B.C. 78. Upon
his recommendation before his decease, she threw herself upon the protection
chiefly of the Pharisees, as the most powerful and influential, as well as the
most turbulent, of the sects. Alexandra reigned prosperously for nine years, and
then fell sick and died. The Pharisees, emboldened by the favors shown them in
her time, began to persecute the opposing sects. Her first son, Hyrcanus II.,
had been made high priest during her reign, while her second son, Aristobulus, a
man of daring and intrigue, succeeded in placing himself at the head of the
weaker party, the Sadducees, and finally at the head of the army outside of
Jerusalem, and upon his mother's death sought to make himself master of the
place. He marched against it, but was opposed by the Pharisees within, and his
brother, Hyrcanus II., as high priest, at their head. He, however, succeeded in
obtaining possession of the city, and his brother, the high priest, yielded his
claims and agreed to return to private life, B.C. 69. This blow, for a season,
was fatal to the Pharisaic party. The time had now arrived when commotion
succeeded commotion, by the turbulence of the three sects into which the Jews
were divided, viz.: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essones,* the latter being much
more quiet and retired than the other two. But there was another enemy to arise
which would be more dangerous to the Asmonean house than the Pharisees.
Antipater, the father of Herod, an Idumenean of noble birth, was the son of
Antipas, who had been governor of that province under Alexander Jannaeus. He had
influence over Hyrcanus, and induced him to seek the protection and aid of
Aretas, king of Arabia; so that Aristobulus soon found himself assailed by
50,000 men- Aretas, Antipater and Hyrcanus at their head, B.C. 65. He was
defeated and fled to Jerusalem, where he was unsupported by the people, and shut
himself up in the temple and prepared for defense. A deliverer at length arose
in the person of the Roman general, Pompey, who ordered the siege to be raised,
and summoned both Aristobulus and Hyrcanus to appear before him at Damascus that
he might decide the matter between them, B.C. 63. When the time of hearing the
cause came on, representatives of Aristobulus, Hyrcanus and the Jewish people
stood before Pompey, each complaining of the other. The people charged both the
brothers as having usurped the prerogatives of high priests and tyrannized over
them, and they therefore wished the kingly office entirely set aside. Pompey
dismissed the parties courteously, without deciding in favor of either.

*This name is said to mean
silent or mysterious. The sect existed from about 110 B.C. to A.D. 70. Josephus
estimates their number at about 4,000. Their chief settlement was a large
agricultural billage in some highly cultivated oases amid the wilderness on the
northwest shore of the Dead Sea. They had a few other scattered communities
throughout Palestine. Their creed was mainly that of the Parisees, but their
practice was even more rigorous. With Parisaism they combined stoicism,
asceticism, monasticism, celibacy and puritanism. They held all property in
common, and were said to be temperate, industrious, charitable, opposed to all
oaths, slavery, and war, and commerce.

Aristobulus returned home,
and, suspecting the goodness of his cause at court, endeavored to put his
country in a state of defense. Pompey, after a while, began to assume a higher
tone. He marched into Judea, and, after a stern resistance, entered Jerusalem,
B.C. 57, and went himself into the Holy of Holies,* to the great horror of the
Jews, and so, to their astonishment, carried off none of the treasures of the
temple. He appointed Hyrcanus high priest without the regal authority- levied
his tribute on the people, and departed with Aristobulus, his two sons and two
daughters, designed to adorn his triumphal march into Rome.

* It is said that Pompey
wondered that he found no image of the Deity in the temple-the Pagans were
accustomed to having and worshiping images of their gods.

The Romans, having deprived
the High Priest of all royal authority, established, in five different cities,
five independent Senates or Sanhedrims, according to the form of the great
Sanhedrim of seventy one, which perhaps had existed from the captivity. The
places where the Sanhedrims sat were Jerusalem, Jericho, Gadara, Amathus and
Sepphoris. This form of government lasted until Julius Caesar reinvested
Hyrcanus with the supreme dignity, B.C. 44.

During the great civil war in
Rome the fate of Judea, like that of nearly all other nations, hung in trembling
suspense. After the death of Pompey the prudent Antipater rendered Ceasar
essential service in his campaign in Egypt in favor of Cleopatra, and was
rewarded with the full rites of Roman citizenship for himself, and (B.C. 47) the
appointment of procurator or governor over the whole of Judea; also the full.
re-establishment of Hyrcanus in the high priesthood. Antipater, still further
presuming on the favor of Rome, proceeded to appoint his elder son Phasael to
the government of Jerusalem, and the younger Herod to that of Galilee, B.C. 47.
Herod soon began to develop his natural decision and severity of character. He
arrested robbers and destroyed them without trial, and set at naught the
authorities in Jerusalem. When brought before the Sanhedrim he appeared in arms,
and by affrighting them escaped punishment. Only one man, Sameas, dared even to
rebuke him; and, strange to say, when he afterward slew the other members of the
Sanhedrim, he spared this man Sameas. He afterward obtained by a bribe the
military command of Coele-Syria, and advanced against Jerusalem; but, by the
intervention of his father, withdrew his forces.

Upon the death of Ceasar,
Capias assumed the administration of Syria, B.C. 43. Judea was heavily oppressed
every way, and the taxes were so exorbitant that the whole population of some
towns were sold as slaves to raise tribute.

Herod was ever dexterous and
bold. After the great battle at Philippi Herod made his approaches to the rising
sun, and obtained the favor of Mark Antony. Antipater had been poisoned by
Malichus to prevent the rising and then powerful Idumenean influence in Judea.

"An unexpected enemy arose,
to trouble again the peace of Judea. At this juncture the Parthians under
Pacorus, the king's son, entered Syria and Asia Minor, and overran the whole
region. A part of their army, under Barzapharnes, took possession of
Coele-Syria. Antigonus, the last remaining branch of the Asmonean race,
determined to risk his fortune in the desperate hazard of Parthian protection;
he offered 1,000 talents and 500 Jewish women- a strange compact- as the price
of his restoration to the Jewish kingdom. Antigonus himself raised a
considerable native power and entered Judea, followed by Pacorus, the cup-bearer
of the king, who had the same name with the king's son. Antigonus fought his way
to Jerusalem, and, by means of his party, entered the city. Jerusalem was torn
asunder by the contending factions; and the multitudes who came up at the feast
of Pentecost, adopting different parties, added to the fierce hostility and
mutual slaughter. The Antigonians held the temple, the Hyrcanians the palace,
and, daily contests taking place, the streets ran with blood. Antigonus at
length invidiously proposed to submit their mutual differences to the
arbitration of Pacorus, the Parthian general. Phasael weakly consented; and
Pacorus, admitted within the town, prevailed on the infatuated Phasael to
undertake a journey with Hyrcanus, and submit the cause to Barzapharnes, the
commander in chief. He set forth on this ill-fated expedition, and was at first
received with courtesy; the plan of the Parthians being to abstain from violence
till they had seized Herod, who, having vainly remonstrated with his brother on
his imprudence, remained in the city. But the crafty Herod, receiving warning
from his brother, whose suspicions had been too late awakened, fled with the
female part of the family toward Masada. The journey was extremely dangerous,
and at one time Herod, in despair, had almost attempted his own life. At Masada,
a strong fortress on the west shore of the Dead Sea, he received succor brought
by his brother Joseph from Idumea; him he left in command at Masada, and retired
himself into Arabia, from thence to Egypt, and at length to Rome. In the
meantime Hyrcanus and Phasael had been made prisoners; the former, Antigonus not
wishing to put him to death, was incapacitated forever from the office of High
Priest by the mutilation of his ears. Phasael anticipated the executioner by
beating his brains out against the wall of his prison."- Milman.

The Parthians plundered the
city of Jerusalem and ravaged the country, notwithstanding their alliance with
Antigonus. Herod, in the meantime, gained favor at Rome beyond his expectations,
and Angustus and Antony united in conferring the crown upon him, 40 years B.C.
He returned at once to Palestine, raised a force, rescued his brother and bride,
who were shut up in the fortress of Masada, and reduced to great extremities by
the besieging army of Antigonus, and, overrunning Galilee, at length sat down
before Jerusalem. Silo, a Roman general who was acting with Herod, proved
treacherous, and retired from before Jerusalem, and Herod was compelled to do
the same.

Herod fixed his headquarters
at Samaria, and contented himself with destroying robbers, B.C. 39. The next
year, with Roman auxiliaries, he made another attack on Jerusalem, and was
defeated. He retired to make his complaints to Antony at Samosata, and, while
absent, his brother risked a battle, against Herod's advice, with the forces of
Antigonus, and was killed. Herod on his return avenged the death of his brother
Joseph by the total discomfiture of Pappus, the general of Antigonus. In the
spring of the next year, B.C. 87, he formed the regular siege of Jerusalem;
during the siege he returned to Samaria to consummate his marriage with
Mariamne, the beautiful granddaughter both of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus. By this
marriage he formed an intimate connection with the line of the Asmonean princes,
and he hastened to secure his throne by the conquest of the capital. Jerusalem
held out for above half a year, but was finally taken by the Roman army under
Sosius. Great cruelties were inflicted on the people, and much injury done to
the town by the exasperated Roman soldiery, even against the expostulations of
Herod himself, who did not wish to be left king over a desert. Antigonus was
sent to Antony at Antioch and slain. Herod was fairly installed, by the
authority of Rome, king of Judea, B.C. 37.

This was that Herod the Great
who swayed the sceptre over Jerusalem and Palestine till after the birth of our
Savior.

He did more by far for the
outward improvement of the cities, towns and fortresses of Palestine than any
other king or ruler since the captivity. He thoroughly repaired and greatly
enlarged and adorned the temple of Zerubbabel at Jerusalem. He was upheld by the
great power of Rome, and, while adding to his own fortune, he added to the
wealth and ornament of his country. But he was one of the most jealous and
vindictive of men in all his private relations, and cruel to the last degree
toward all whom he suspected of designs on his crown or disobedience to his
authority. He had ten wives and fourteen children. The particulars of his reign
might be traced, year by year, down to the period of big death, but they are so
revolting, so cruel, and bloodthirsty, that the reader might as well be spared
the shocking perusal. Suffice it to say that in addition to the vast number of
murders committed by him during a long, unbroken reign of over forty years, may
be mentioned that of his beautiful and noble wife Mariamne, her grandfather,
father, brother, uncle, and two of her sons, most noble youths, who were his own
children, who were educated at Rome, and unsurpassed in promise by any in the
land. All these were accused of treasonable designs toward him, without any
foundation in truth. He himself arraigned before Ceasar his two sons for trial,
and took the lead in person to manage the case with all imaginable and unnatural
hatred. No wonder then that such a monster in human shape should play off his
hypocrisy with the wise men of the East, and, so soon as the birth of a "King of
the Jews" was announced to him, send forth and slay all the children in
Bethlehem from two years old and under, in order to include that one who, he
supposed, would aspire to his throne. Neither need we wonder that a king so
steeped in human blood, and so fully convinced that the execrations of an
outraged people were resting on him, should, in order to make the people mourn,
instead of rejoicing, at his death, order some of the principal men in every
family in the land shut up in prison, so that an executioner should be ready at
the announcement of his own death to slay them also. The innocents were slain in
the last year of his life, it is supposed. And the last public act of his life
was to order the execution of his son Antipater, who was in prison, and who, it
was said, had attempted to bribe the keeper to let him out. He was slain just
five days before his father's death. Herod for a long time was awfully afflicted
both in body and mind; he was haunted with dreadful forebodings and distressing
dreams, and yet nothing appeared to soften his, stony heart or cause him to
relent or repent for one hour. His conscience was seared, and failed to admonish
or have any government over his mind. He lived to be seventy years of age,
having been king of Jerusalem thirty-seven years, and died a few years before
the Passover, B.C. 4, at Jericho, after suffering the most horrible agonies,
mental and physical. Josephus states that he had fever, and an intolerable
itching over all his body, and intestinal inflammation, and dropsy, and worms,
and putrefaction. God thus gave the inhuman monster a fore-taste of the awful
and eternal retribution awaiting him beyond the grave.

Sadly, indeed, does the Old
Dispensation close, with such a ruler over Israel as was Herod the Great. The
nation was, for the most part, demoralized, and but little better than their
ruler; yet in them were found the seed royal and a remnant according to the
election of grace.

Thus we have endeavored to
notice some things connected with a certain race of men from Adam to the coming
of Christ, a period, according to the common chronology, of 4,004 years. The
record shows what sin has done for our race, and also what grace has done. Where
sin abounded, grace, when applied, has much more abounded, because it hath in
every instance gained the victory. One of the most prominent features of Old
Testament history is the numerous wars therein stated to have been waged since
the Fall. The first man born slew his brother, and brother has been slaying
brother from that day to this. The proneness to war and the worship of idols
seem to predominate in the human mind, and such is the frequent occurrence of
them in history that the heart almost sickens at their perusal. Yet it need not,
for the same working is in the hearts of all men (even now) untouched by grace,
and we only read of ourselves when we read of others. "The human heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" While
darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, the Lord has arisen
upon some few and His glory has been seen upon them. The spiritual family of God
have been few in all ages as compared with fleshly professors and open
reprobates. God's people are always chosen in the furnace of affliction, and in
this world must suffer tribulation. We have noticed the suffering and faith of
the people of God in the Old Testament dispensation, and the same will compare
favorably with the New. The Apostle, in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews,
enumerates many who lived and died in the faith under the Old Dispensation, and
thereby from a cloud of witnesses encourages the hearts of many professing
Christianity to hold out faithful to the end of their earthly pilgrimage.

Those specially mentioned by
him are Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Rahab,
Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, David and Samuel, who, through faith, subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, etc.,
etc. Surely, Faith overcomes the world.

After the captivity there
were added to the books of the Old Testament the prophecies and lamentations of
Jeremiah, the prophecies of Ezekiel, the books of Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the
prophecies of Daniel, Habakkuk, Zechariah and Malachi. These completed the
sacred canon, which then consisted of thirty-nine books, now arranged in the
following order, viz:

These books were held sacred
and considered authoritative and divinely inspired, and handed down by the Jews
from generation to generation to the days of our Savior. He accepted this canon
as the embodiment of the Scriptures and the authoritative word of God. He
commanded men to search them. He quoted them in His teachings; and all the
writers in the New Testament quoted and referred to them as the Scriptures of
Divine truth and the sacred oracles of God, from which there was no appeal. Paul
says of them in his epistle to Timoth : " The holy Scriptures are able to make
us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works," These are the Scriptures
which the Apostles carried with them into all the world when they went forth
preaching the gospel to every creature, and these are the Scriptures out of
which they reasoned, in order to bring men to the obedience of faith.

They were the only rule of
faith and practice to the church from Malachi to the Christian era, a period of
about 400 years, and- until the twenty-seven inspired books of the New Testament
were added to them, which completed the whole volume of inspiration- God's
authoritative and revealed word, contained in what is generally known as the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

As we have now arrived at the
close of the Old Dispensation, it will be proper to include some remarks upon
its gereral character, and its relation to the New or Christian Dispensation.

There are in the New
Testament, in addition to numberless allusions, about two hundred and sixty
direct quotations from the Old Testament, or about one for every chapter of the
former. It was a wise remark of Augustine, In Vetere Testamento Novum latet, et
in Novo Vetus patet,- In the Old Testament the New is concealed, and in the New
the Old is revealed. The Old was the type, and the New the antitype. "There was
a pre ordained connection between the two. The antitypical realities of the
gospel were the ultimate objects contemplated by the mind of God in establishing
the types of the old economy. To prepare the way for the introduction of these
ultimate objects He placed the church under a course of instruction by types, or
designed and fitting resemblances of what was to come in ‘the ends of the
world,’ or ‘fullness of the times,’ or the gospel age. The church of the Old
Testament was in a state of comparative childhood, supplied only with such means
of instruction, and subjected to such methods of discipline, as were suited to
so imperfect and provisional a period of her being. This instruction and
discipline, however, should not be regarded as employed simply for the sake of
those who lived during its continuance. While primarily and wisely adapted to
them, it was also fitted, and indeed chiefly designed, to tell with beneficial
effect on the spiritual life of the church in her more advanced state of
existence. The man of mature age, when pursuing his way amid the perplexing
cares and busy avocations of life, finds himself continually indebted to the
lessons he was taught and the skill he acquired during the period of his early
culture. And, in like manner, it was undoubtedly God's intention that His method
of procedure toward the church in her state of minority not only should minister
what was needed for her immediate instruction and improvement, but should also
furnish materials of edification and comfort for believers to the end of time.
In both Test- aments there are the same great elements of truth; in the Old
these were exhibited in a form more level to the comprehension of immature
minds. The Mosaic ritual had at once a shell and a kernel; its shell, the
outward rights and observances it enjoined; its kernel, the spiritual relations
which these indicated, and the spiritual truths which they embodied and
expressed. The symbolical institutions of the Old Testament were shadows of the
better things of the gospel (Col. ii. 17; Heb. viii. 5; x.1); that is, they were
obscure and imperfect resemblances of the same Divine truths. By means of an
earthly tabernacle, with its appropriate services, God manifested toward His
people the same principles of government, and required from them substantially
the same disposition and character that He does now under the higher
dispensation of the gospel. For, look beyond the more outward diversities, and
what do you see? You see in both alike a pure and holy God, enshrined in the
recesses of a glorious sanctuary, unapproachable by sinful flesh but through a
medium of powerful intercession and cleansing efficacy; yet, when so approached,
ever ready to receive and bless with the richest tokens of His favor and loving
kindness as many as come in the exercise of genuine contrition for sin, and
longing for restored fellowship with Him whom they have offended. The same
description applies equally to the service of both dispensations; for in both
the same impressions are conveyed of God's character respecting sin and
holiness, and the same gracious feelings necessarily awakened by them in the
bosom of sincere worshipers. But, then, as to the means of accomplishing this,
there was only in the one case a shadowy exhibition of spiritual things through
earthly materials and temporary expedients; while, in the other, the naked
realities appear in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ, the rich endowments of
the Spirit of grace, and the glories of an everlasting kingdom. The religious
institutions of earlier times contained only the rudiments or elements of
religious truth and life. The church, while under these ordinances, is said to
have been ‘in bondage under the elements of the world’ (Gal. iv. 3). The
expression in Galatians iii. 24, ‘the law was our pedagogue to bring us to
Christ,’ conveys much the same idea; since it was the special business of the
ancient pedagogue to train the youth to proper habits, and, without himself
imparting more than the merest elements of learning, to conduct him to those who
were qualified to give it. The law did this for such as were placed under it, by
means of its symbolical institutions and ordinances, which at once conveyed to
the understanding a measure of instruction, and trained and disciplined the
will. It was from its very nature imperfect, and pointed to something higher and
better. Believers were kept by it in a kind of bondage, but one which, by its
formative and elevating character, was ever ripening its subjects for a state in
which it should no more be needed. But the most of national lsrael, being
unspiritual, soon perverted these local, earthly, outward, imperfect ordinances
into formality, carnality and corruption. God, therefore, destroyed the outward
by the hand of the king of Babylon, and drove national Israel afar from the
scenes of her long idolatry. The times of Daniel and the captivity formed, in
some degree, the turning-point from the Old to the New, and thenceforward the
one was continually shading into the other. God thus spiritualized and elevated
the ideas which the Israelites entertained of Divine things, and prepared a
gracious remnant for the far more spiritual and elevating teachings of Christ
and His Apostles. When the veil was rent in twain, abolishing the distinction at
the centre, all others of an outward kind necessarily gave way. When the great
High Priest had fulfilled His work, no work remained to be done by any other
priest. The gospel of shadows was conclusively gone, and the gospel of realities
come. And the compliances which the Apostles generally, and Paul himself
latterly, made (Acts xxi.) to humor the prejudices and silence the senseless
clamors of the Jews, though necessary at first, were yet carried to an undue and
dangerous length. They palpably failed, in Paul's case, to accomplish the end in
view; and, in the case of the Jewish Christians themselves, were attended with
jealousies, self -righteous bigotry, growing feebleness and ultimate decay.
‘Before Messiah's coming, the ceremonies were as the swaddling hands in which He
was wrapt; but, after it, they resembled the linen clothes which He left in the
grave. Christ was in the one, but not in the other.’ The apostate Romish church,
being unspiritual, like the majority of national Israel, at an early period
mistook the means for the end, embraced the shadow for the substance, converted
what had been set up for the express purpose of leading men to Christ, into a
mighty stumbling-block to obstruct the way of their approach to Him, fell back,
by a retrograde movement, from the high, mature, inward and spiritual, to the
low, childish, outward and natural. By that great apostasy everything was
gradually carried back from the apostolic ideal of a spiritual community,
founded on the perfect atonement and priesthood of Christ, to the outwardness
and ritualism of ancient times. The sacrifices of the laws, it was thought, must
have their correspondence in the offering of the Eucharist; and, as every
sacrificial offering must have a priest to present it, so the priesthood of the
Old Covenant, determined by genealogical descent, must find its substitute in a
priesthood determined by apostolical succession. It was but a step further, and
one quite natural in the circumstances, to hold, that as the ancient hierarchy
culminated in a High Priest at Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, so the
Christian hierarchy must have a similar culmination in the Bishop of Rome, the
capital of the world. In these and many similar applications of Old Testament
things to the ceremonial institutions and devices of Romanism, there is a
substantial perpetuation of the Judaizing error of apostolic times- an adherence
to the oldness and carnality of the letter, after the spiritual life and more
elevated standing of the New have come. According to it, everything in
Christianity, as well as in Judaism, is made to turn upon formal distinctions
and ritual observances; and that not the less because of a certain introduction
of the higher element, as in the substitution of apostolical succession and the
impressed character of the new priesthood, for the genealogical descent and
family relationship of the old. Such slight alterations only affect the mode of
getting at the outward things established, but leave the outwardness itself
unaffected; they are of no practical avail in lifting Christianity above the old
Judaistic level. The whole movement was a retrogradation to the weak and
beggarly elements which in earlier times had proved the constant source of
imperfection and failure, and from which the church of the New Testament should
have counted it her distinctive privilege to be free (Gal. v. 1). Instead of the
common priesthood of believing souls anointed by the Spirit of holiness, and
dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, a select priesthood of artificial
distinctions and formal service were constituted the chief depositories of grace
and virtue; instead of the simple manifestation of the truth to the heart, there
came the muffled drapery of symbolical rites and bodily ministrations; and for
the patient endurance of evil, or the earnest endeavor to overcome it with good,
resort was had to the violence of the sword, and the coercive measures of
arbitrary power. Strange delusion! As if the mere form and shadow of the truth
were mightier than the truth itself- or the circumstantial adjuncts of the faith
were of more worth than its essential attributes- or the crouching dread and
enforced subjection of bondmen were a sacrifice to God more acceptable than the
childlike and ready obedience of loving hearts! Such a depravation of the spirit
of the gospel could not fail to carry its own curse and judgment along with it;
and history leaves no room to doubt that, as men's views went out in this false
direction, the tide of carnality and corruption flowed in; the professed
Christian theocracy, as of old the Jewish, was carried captive by the world; the
pretended spouse became an harlot. "This mournful defection was descried from
the outset, and in vivid colors was portrayed on the page of prophetic
revelation, as a warning to the church to beware of compromising the truth of
God, or attempting to seek the living among the dead (Dan. vii. 25; 2 Thess.
ii.; I Tim. iv. 1-3; 2 Tim. iii. 1-5; iv. 3, 4; 1 John ii. 18; Rev. xiii. 1-18;
xvii.). What constitutes the peculiar glory of the gospel, and should ever have
been regarded as forming the main secret of its strength, is the extent to which
its tidings furnish an insight into the mind of God, and the power it confers on
those who receive it to look as with open face into the realities of the Divine
kingdom. Doing this in a manner altogether its own, it reaches the depths of
thought and feeling in the bosom, takes possession of the inner man, and
implants there a spirit of life, which works with sovereign power on the things
around it, and casts aside, as being no longer needed, the external props and
appliances that were required by the demands of a feebler age. For the kingdom
established by the gospel is essentially spiritual- it is a kingdom of
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; and when true to itself, and
conducted in harmony with the mind of its Divine Head, it must ever give to the
spiritual the ascendancy over the carnal, and look for its gradual extension and
final triumph to the power and influence of the truth itself. The Spirit-endowed
church of Christ is the true theocracy in its new, its higher, its perennial
form; since it is that in which God peculiarly dwells, and with which He
identifies His character and glory. Every individual member of this church,
according to the proper idea of his calling, is a king and a priest to God;
therefore, not in bondage to the world, nor dividing between the world and God,
but recognizing God in all, honoring and obeying God, and receiving power, as a
prince with God, to prevail over the opposition and wickedness of the world.
Every particular church, in like manner, is, according to the idea of its
calling, an organized conmmunity of such kings and priests;" therefore, subject,
in religious and spiritual matters, to no earthly potentate or aristocracy, but
only to the King of kings, feeling to be redeemed from iniquity by His precious
blood, desiring to be found holy and without blame before Him in love, and
praying that His kingdom should come, and His will be done on earth as it is
done in Heaven.

Protestantism, which never
cast off all the fatal errors of Romanism, and which has been gravitating back
towards Romanism ever since its secession in the sixteenth century, in
predicting the salvation of the sinner upon himself instead of upon God, makes
the same fundamental mistake in its typology as that made by the Romanists, and
noticed above. "Its carnality is continually betraying itself in a tendency to
depress and lower the spiritual truths of the gospel to a conformity with the
simple letter of Old Testament Scripture. The gospel is read not only through a
Jewish medium, but also in a Jewish sense, and nothing but externals admitted in
the New, wherever there is descried, in the form of the representation, any
reference to such in the Old." The natural offspring of Abraham are said to
represent the natural offspring of believers; circumcision is converted into
infant baptism; the authority of the priesthood into the authority of "Mother
Church;" the Hebrew theocracy into an alliance of church and state; the stoning
of blasphemers into death of heretics by torture, fire and sword; the "fathers"
and "reformers" are substituted for the Rabbins; and the lie is given to Christ,
and inefficacy to His finished work, by robbing the church of its simplicity and
spirituality, and loading it with dead materialism, formalism, traditionalism,
sacramentalism and hierarchism.

One of the most fashionable
Judaizing errors of the present day is the modern method of explaining away the
New Testament doctrine of personal and eternal election. "The advocates of a
modified Arminianism maintain that this doctrine is improperly understood of an
appointment to personal salvation and eternal life, on the special ground that
the election of the Jewish people was only their callling as a nation to outward
privileges and a temporal inheritance. Rightly understood, however, this is
rather a reason why election in the Christian sense should be made to embrace
something higher and better, like all the other Old Testament types. For the
proper counterpart under the gospel to those external relations of Judaism is
the gift of grace and the heirship of glory- the lower in the one case shadowing
the higher in the other- the outward and temporal representing the spiritual and
eternal. Even Macknight, who cannot certainly be charged with any excess of the
spiritual element in his interpretations, perceived the necessity of making, as
he expresses it, ‘the natural seed the type of the spiritual, and the temporal
blessings the emblems of the eternal.’ Hence he justly regards the outward
professing church in one case, with its unconditional election to the earthly
Canaan, as answering, in the other, to the invisible spiritual church,
consisting of believers of all nations, with its unconditional election to the
heavenly Canaan (Gen. xv. 18; Acts xiii. 48; Rom. viii. 29, 30; Eph. i. 3, 4; 1
Peter i. 1-5)." -P. Fairbairn, in Typology of Scripture.

All the Old Testament is one
great type and prophecy, which finds and will find its full accomplishment in
Jesus Christ. As He told His disciples both before and after His resurrection,
"All things which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in
the Psalms, concerning me, must be fulfilled" (Luke xxiv.44). "Think not," said
He, in His sermon on the mount, "that I am come to destroy the law or the
prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. v. 17). Said the
angel to John, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Rev. xix.
10). "Pure gold is not found in large masses; the value of the mass lies mostly
in the small particles of the rich metal scattered through it." The golden vein
of Messianic prophecy runs through the Old Testament Scriptures, and gives them
a Divine unity; and the New Testament, with the same unity, describes the
fulfillment of these predictions in Jesus of Nazareth, The Messiah (Dan. ix. 25,
26) was to be the seed of the woman (Gen. iii. 15), of the family of Shem (Gen.
ix. 26), Abraham (Gen. xii. 2,3), Isaac, (Gen. xxi. 12), Jacob (Gen. xxviii.
14), Judah (Gen. xlix. 10), Jesse (Isaiah xi. 1-10) and David (Jer. xxxiii. 15).
He was to be preceded by a messenger like Elijah (Mal. iii. 1; iv. 5), crying in
the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord (Isaiah xl. 3-5). He was to be
born of a virgin (Isaiah vii. 14), in Bethlehem of Judea (Micah v. 2), just
before the sceptre departed from Judah (Gen. xlix. 10), in the days of the
fourth universal (Roman) empire (Daniel ii. 44), about 460 years after the
issuing of the Persian king's decree for the restoration of Jerusalem (Daniel
ix. 24-27; Numbers iv. 3; Luke iii. 23), and before the destruction of the
second temple (Hag. ii. 6-9). (His earthly ministry must therefore have occurred
more than 1,800 years ago; and, if it did not occur then, the Old Testament
Scriptures must be false.) Rachel, who was buried near Bethlehem (Gen. xxxv.
19), was poetically represented as weeping for her slaughtered children (Jer.
xxxi. 15), and God was to call back His Son out of Egypt (Hosea xi. 1). That Son
was to grow up before His Father as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
ground (Isaiah liii. 2). He was to be preeminently the Anointed One (Psalm ii.
2), a Prophet like Moses (Deut. xviii. 18), a Priest like Melchizedek (Psalm cx.
4), a King like David (Isa. ix. 7). He was to be the King of Zion (Psalm ii. 6;
Zech. ix. 9), higher than the kings of the earth (Psalm lxxxix. 27), altogether
lovely (Cant. v. 16); the Ruler of Israel, whose goings forth have been from of
old, from everlasting (Micah v. 2); the Maker, Redeemer, and Shepherd of Israel
(Isa. liv. 5; Ezek. xxxiv. 23-31); the Shiloh, or Peace-Giver (Gen. xlix. 10);
He was to open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, make the lame
man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing (Isa. xxxv. 4-6); He was to
have the law of His God in His heart, and delight to do His will, and to preach
righteousness (Psalm xl. 6-10); He was to be the glory of Israel, and a light to
the Gentiles (Isa. xlix. 6; lx. 1-3); the Star of Jacob and Sceptre of Israel,
who should smite His foes, and have dominion (Num. xxix. 17, 19); the Sun of
Righteousness, arising, with healing in His wings, unto all that fear the Lord
(Mal. iv. 2); He was to be the Lord of the temple, the Messenger of the covenant
(Mal. iii. 1); not only the son but the Lord of David (Psalm cx. 1); the Son of
man (Dan. vii. 13), and yet the Son of God (Psalm ii. 2, 7, 12); a man and yet
the fellow or equal of God (Zech. xiii. 7); identified with God (Zech. xii. 10);
Immanuel, or God with us (Isa. vii. 14); the Lord our Righteousness (Jer. xxiii.
6); the Divine Redeemer who should stand at the latter day upon the earth (Job
xix. 25-27); who was to come with dyed garments, glorious in His apparel,
traveling in the greatness of His strength, speaking in righteousness, mighty to
save, treading the wine-press alone, perfectly able, without any help, to bring
salvation to His redeemed, and to destroy all their enemies (Isa. lxiii. 1-9);
the spiritual Zerubbabel who would make the great mountain a plain, lay the
foundation of the Lord's house, and also finish it, bringing forth the headstone
with shoutings of Grace, grace unto it (Zech. iv. 6-10); though a child born, a
son given to us, yet Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, and the Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government and peace
there should be no end (Isa. ix. 6, 7); His name to continue as long as the sun,
and men to be blessed in Him (Psalm lxxii. 17); His dominion to be universal and
eternal (Dan. vii. 14); His throne to be the throne of God, and endure forever
and ever (Psalm xlv. 6, 7); and yet- wonderful, indded, according to His name-
He was to be a servant of God, with visage more marred than any man (Isa. lii
13, 14); despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief (Isa. liii.. 3); He was to come to Jerusalem, as a lowly king of
righteousness and salvation, riding upon the foal of an ass (Zech. ix. 9); He
was to be conspired against by the kings and rulers of the earth (Psalm ii. 2);
though never guilty of fraud or violence (Isa. liii. 9), He was to be betrayed
by His own familiar friend (Psalm xli. 9) for thirty pieces of silver, which
should be given to the potter for a field to bury strangers in (Zech. xi. 12,13;
Jer. vii. 32, 33; xix.; Matt. xxvii. 3-10); He was to be derided by His ungodly
enemies (Psalm xxii. 6-8); and, having been made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death (Psalm viii. 5; Heb. ii. 9), and being doomed to have
His heel bruised while He bruised the head of the serpent (Gen. iii. 15), He was
to be numbered with the transgressors (Isa. liii. 12), and pierced by the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but be bitterly and privately mourned
for by them, and open to them a fountain for sin and for uncleanness (Zech. xii.
10-14; xiii. 1); He was to have His hands and feet pierced, and His garments
parted, and lots cast for His vesture (Psalm xxii. 16,18); be given gall and
vinegar to drink (Psalm lxix. 21); He was to be smitten by the sword of Divine
Justice (Zech. xiii. 7), the sun being turned into darkness (Joel ii. 31; Amos
viii. 9; Acts ii. 20); stricken for the transgression of His people (Isa. liii.
8); bruised, by God's appointment, for their iniquities (Isa. liii. 5); cut off,
but not for Himself (Dan. ix. 26); make an end of sins, make reconciliation for
iniquity, and bring in an everlasting righteousness (Dan. ix. 24); make
intercession for the transgressors (liii.12); take from His people their filthy
garments and clothe them with a change of rainment, and remove their iniquity in
one day (Zech. iii. 1-10); by the blood of His covenant send forth His prisoners
out of the pit wherein is no water (Zech. ix. 11); yield up His soul as an
offering for sin (Isa. liii. 10); be forsaken of His God (Psalm xxii. 1); be
with the rich in His death (Isa. liii. 9); not to see corruption (Psalm xvi.
10), but rise again the third day (Hos. vi. 2; Jonah i. 17), prolong His days,
see His seed, and the pleasure of the Lord prosper in His hand (Isa. liii. 10);
see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied, and by His knowledge justify
many, because He shall have borne their iniquities (Isa. liii. 11); He should be
as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isa. xxxii.
1, 2); He, should come down like rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that
water the earth (Psalm lxxii. 6); not cry or lift up or cause His voice to be
heard in the street, not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax (Isa.
xlii. 1-4); He should purify His people like gold and silver, that they might
offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness (Mal. iii. 3); He should be
anointed immeasurably with the Spirit of God (as His very name, Messiah, or
Christ, indicates) to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and
the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them
that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be
called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified (Isa. Ixi. 1-3).

Now reflect that these
prophecies, as given by God to His people, were scattered through a period of
about thirty-six hundred years, so that, if there had been any deception, it
would have required the collusion of about seventy generations, and that, too,
to bring about a belief of the human race in the most elevating spiritual
blessings- a circumstance utterly incredible; remember that the Jews who
persecuted Jesus Christ to death, and who still reject His claims, have handed
down these prophetic writings to us as infallibly inspired of God, and are, many
of them, today willing to lay down their lives, if necessary, in defense of such
inspiration; and then carefully read the New Testament, which was written more
than four hundred years after the last Old Testament prophet; and see how these
vastly complicated and seemingly inconsistent details were precisely fulfilled
in the history of Jesus of Nazareth; and if you have not a darkened
understanding, a seared conscience, and a stony heart, you will prostrate your
soul before the once incarnate and crucified but now risen and enthroned
Redeemer, with the impassioned exclamation of Thomas- My Lord and my God!

As has well been said, Jesus
Christ is the only key in all the universe that fits the infinitely complicated
lock of Messianic prophecy.

The Jewish rabbins thought
some of the Messianic prophecies so inconsistent with others that they supposed
there would be two Messiahs- a Messiah ben (or son of) Joseph who should suffer,
and a Messiah ben David who should reign. But the Messianic prophecies of
suffering and reigning are indissolubly blended. The principles of bleeding
sorrow and holy truimph are eternally blended in Him who is at once and forever
the LAMB and the SON OF GOD- the vicarious sufferer and the Divine bridegroom of
His redeemed church. (Cant. v. 10; Isa. liii.; liv. 5; Eph. v. 23-32; John i.
18, 29; Psalm ii. 7; Matt. xvi. 16; Mark xiv. 61, 62; Acts iii. 13; Rom. i. 3,
4; Heb. i. 2, 3; 1 Peter i. 3; Rev. i. 5; xix. 7, 9, 13; xxii. 1).